Archive - Mostly Aesthetics

American Impressionist

As a concept, “American Impressionism was always oxymoronic, like, say, Canadian salsa”: surely this sentence is too good to be true?

Jun 27 •

Book Review: Paradise Lost by John Milton

Jun 20 •

Opposition to Reason in Conservative Thought

“Conservatives are opposed to Reason”: a good summary, if one that makes for bad PR.

Jun 13 •

"Everywhere, the spirit of equality prevails"

Henry Hulton served as Commissioner of Customs in Boston from 1767 to 1775.

Jun 10 •

About The Author

The author was born in California, and ever since, he has associated west with toward the ocean.

Jun 6 •

May 2025

All the Fun’s in How You Say a Thing by Timothy Steele: Review and Refutation

Part 2 of Theory of Meter

May 30 •

Poets on Poets: Kirsch on Graham and Ashbery

Free verse often leaves me cold: my dirty little secret.

May 25 •

Hans Fritzsche at Nuremberg

This poem is part of the series Interviews With Vampires.

May 22 •

Recent Advances in Knowledge of God

Time was, philosophers were skeptics, looking down on the poor benighted masses, who think their opinions are knowledge when they really aren’t.

May 18 •

Philosophers on Film

In Damien Chazelle’s film Whiplash, Andrew Neiman, a drumming student at Schaffer Conservatory, is called to join Terence Fletcher’s studio band.

May 15 •

Theory of meter: introduction to an introduction

Part 1: against feet revisited

May 11 •

Hans Frank at Nuremberg

This poem is part of the series Interviews With Vampires.

May 8 •

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